Media notes: on the dearth of public policy on TV, hacking histrionics, and a new Strib magazine
Mainstream TV news has all but completely foregone coverage of issues and policy in this year’s presidential race.
Media
MinnPost’s media beat focuses on the people, ideas and institutions shaping local and national media.
The PiPress faces familiar woes, including more buyouts — and the search for a local owner
Never mind sending someone down to Texas if there’s an important local angle to a story, says columnist Ruben Rosario. Budgets are so tight, “We’re lucky if we can send somebody to Bemidji.”
With help from Vikings, KFAN tops radio ratings
The success and hype around the team this year has produced a steady climb in audience numbers for the sports-talk station.
Why the cries of the media ‘rigging’ the election are so exasperating
Forget rocket science. Judging the difference between an opinion and a news report doesn’t require any great intellectual gifts.
Why talk of ‘Trump TV’ is not just a cruel joke on America
It doesn’t take a degree from the Wharton School of Business to see a potentially lucrative audience for an operation that’s wilder and woolier than Fox News.
Post-election, the media will have to examine its own role in the 2016 presidential campaign
The welcome turn in coverage taken by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post should become the standard for all campaigns to come.
Yes, the Star Tribune’s political endorsements still matter. Here’s how the editorial board makes its decisions
Call it brave or foolhardy, but among the major news players the Star Tribune remains the big game in town for endorsing.
Are fewer people interested in the NFL, or are they just finding new ways to watch?
If the early numbers for NFL ratings continue, social pundits will have to take a serious look at whether the game has lost a bit of its luster.
What should viewers expect from Clinton-Trump debate moderator Lester Holt?
Does the first presidential debate require a different kind of moderator?
How should the media react to Grazzini-Rucki’s harassment accusations against Brodkorb?
The episode offers several compelling facets on which traditional journalists should offer public opinion. On one level it’s simple: Has Brodkorb committed journalism or not?
With ‘Campaign 2016,’ WCCO-TV tries to refresh the local political affairs show
No one doubts an audience exists for courteous civil discourse, just as no one should doubt an audience for something a bit sharper and fresher when it comes to local coverage of politics.
The best TV show of the year will not win an Emmy Award
… and a few other predictions for Sunday night’s award show.
How WCCO and KSTP got the Wetterling story
The stations were well ahead of everybody else in town on breaking the news that the remains of Jacob Wetterling had been found.
Skinny jeans firestorm raises a bigger question: Why does the Strib continue to feature C.J.’s column so prominently?
If there’s an irony to the paper taking so much heat over something so seemingly trivial, it’s that there are so many examples in C.J.’s column of much more cringe-inducing cruelty.
TV news and the Wetterling case: ‘No bells and whistles to this one’
Says Paul McEnroe, who leads KSTP-TV’s investigative unit: “The reason [Tom] Hauser got the tip was as simple as old-fashioned reporting and traditional sourcing.”
Reporter Madeleine Baran on APM Reports’ new Wetterling podcast: ‘I kept asking the same question: Why wasn’t this solved?’
Baran, who led MPR’s award-winning coverage of the local archdiocese, brings ample credibility to investigating one of Minnesota’s biggest crime stories.
Is Minnesota ready to feel the Shern?
At a time where recognition counts for something, former local TV reporter Tim Sherno is hoping to commodify his name and face into votes for Congress.
Why the world needed Gawker (and still does)
The grand irony of the Gawker-Hogan-Thiel bankruptcy episode is that it demonstrates just how difficult it can be to be both independent and viable.
The media, Trump, and the ‘normal standards’ of journalism
Crackpots and chronic prevaricators are a familiar feature of American politics. But journalists have never before dealt with one nominated by a major political party for President of the United States.
